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My evangelical seminary training gave me tools to study God's Word and proclaim it. It did not help me much with two things I now view as central to my Jesus-walk; viz., how to have a deep prayer life, and demonstrating the Gospel of the Kingdom. My understanding is that a lot of Protestant evangelical seminaries in the 1970s lacked in these areas.
I learned how to proclaim God’s Word, but was not trained or mentored in demonstrating God’s Word in love and power. To not do both proclamation and demonstration is, I believe, to be left with a half-Gospel. I do not mean to criticize my teachers. I am greatly indebted to them. In fact, it was one of my seminary New Testament professors who introduced me to the Kingdom theology of George Eldon Ladd. Thank you! I didn't realize how important this would be to me until many years later.
I’m also convinced that there’s not one of us who has the Gospel exactly right in all areas, to include moi. Nevertheless, it seems clear that the way Jesus brought in the Kingdom was 2-fold: He proclaimed the good news of the Kingdom of God, and then he demonstrated it by doing things like healing and delivering people from demonic oppression.
Ladd, former New Testament professor at Fuller Theological Seminary, is one of the most influential evangelical scholars of the late 20th century. Here’s how Ladd explains this in his excellent book The Gospel of the Kingdom:
“Our Lord’s ministry and announcement of the Good News of the Kingdom were characterized by healing, and most notably by the casting out of demons. He proclaimed the Good News of the Kingdom of God, and He demonstrated the Good News of the Kingdom of God by delivering men from the bondage of Satan.” (47)
Of course.
And then Jesus told his followers to do the same.
I think persons who devalue the importance of healing and deliverance ministry devalue the real Gospel. They have only half a Gospel. If you are a theological kind of person, one reason for this devaluing is because of the influence of that nonbiblical theory known as "dispensationalism." (For a decisive refutation of dispensationalism see here, and follow the links.)
Today we need the full Gospel as much as we have ever needed. Here's a recent example for me.
This past week, in my MCCC Logic class, I've been teaching on "inference to the best explanation." The logic of this is:
1. Phenomenon Q.
2. Explanation E best explains Phenomenon Q.
3. Therefore, Explanation E is probably true.
I used, as Phenomenon Q, the ongoing story of the 1 pound Argentinian baby. Here's the state of affairs.
- A baby girl is pronounced stillborn.
- A team of physicians make this pronouncement.
- The baby is placed in a coffin, and put in a morgue refrigerator.
- 12 hours later the baby's mother wants to see her dead baby.
- The morgue allows her to see the baby.
- The coffin is pried open, the cloths surrounding the baby are unwrapped, and the baby cries.
- The mother thinks God did this; viz., that God raised her baby girl from the dead.
That's Phenomenon Q. I asked my logic students the question: "What best explains this?" A number of creative naturalistic explanations were given. All assumed the baby was not really stillborn, but was alive, her vital signs being so weak that the doctors could not detect life.
Now surely that is a possibility.
But note that the "supernatural" option was not given as even a possible explanation by my students. If there was a student who held such a view it was not expressed. This I find to be common: viz., that many mid-adolescents are, at heart, non-supernaturalists. They are philosophical naturalists, and don't know why.
If there are no "signs and wonders" in today's church, little or no evidence of a God who is not himself a philosophical naturalist, then it's no wonder many teens and young adults opt out of this.
Yes, we need "proclamation" of the Gospel. And I do think it is true that, when someone responds to such proclamation in favor of Jesus, this is a work of God. I believe this. I also know it is easily explained away by philosophical naturalists. So, needed more than ever - demonstrations of the power of God, such as we believe happened in the ministry of Jesus. Remember that Jesus himself said his followers would do the things he had been doing, right? That's us, correct? Demonstrations of God's power could be used by God to persuade some of His existence, right?
(For examples of the now-activity of God see especially Craig Keener's Miracles, and U of Indiana professor Candy Gunther Brown's Testing Prayer: Science and Healing.)
